


For Your Health and To Your Wealth

by comebackjessica



Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: Comfort, Comfort Mostly, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Lesbians, Lots Of Comfort I Promise, Love, No Lesbians Die, Polly Is The Strongest Shelby, Strong Female Characters, Strong Women Talking About Idiot Men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:22:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29580195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/comebackjessica/pseuds/comebackjessica
Summary: Polly Gray's power, her lover supposed, was the only thing still keeping those crazy Shelbys together. At the end of the day (or night), though, it still felt incredible to be the one Polly would come to for some much needed comfort.
Relationships: Polly Gray/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	For Your Health and To Your Wealth

_ “There’ll be others.” _

Polly’s words to Tommy still resounded in her head as she made her way home from the Garrison. Well, _not home,_ exactly, but close enough, she supposed. In the dead of night, or the very early morning, Polly knocked on the door she knew would never be closed to her, or at least she really fucking hoped so. On her way over, she nearly broke the heels of her shoes on the slippery cobblestones, and she didn’t really want to return to Small Heath barefoot twice in one week.

The door to the flat swung open and Polly was greeted with a scowl and a barrel of a gun. She smiled wickedly at the sight and let out the breath she didn’t realize she had been holding.

“Hello, lover,” Polly greeted the other woman cheerfully and stepped inside without the invitation.

“Oh, what the fuck, Pol!” The woman put down the gun and quickly locked the door behind, having first taken a careful look along the corridor. 

Polly wasn’t really listening to her, though. She walked around the flat aimlessly, as if seeing it for the very first time. She lit a cigarette and let her coat fall to the floor, while the place’s actual, rightful tennant wrapped herself tighter in the floral bathrobe she was wearing.

“I’ll make some tea,” she sighed, a little resigned. She could already see what Polly’s state of mind was like tonight. For now, tea would have to come first and explanations later. Pol would come around once she would, that’s how it’s always been. No need to bang one’s head against the wall about people’s genuine nature, Tia always said.

“Tia, I was going to buy you that radio,” Polly said then, still scrutinizing the place and smoking her cigarette. “It’s so quiet…”

“Yeah, right you are, Pol,” Tia scoffed and pulled out two cups from the dingy kitchen cabinet. “Is what people need from me these days, bloody swing at three in the fucking morning.”

She made the tea, and since she knew she made the best cuppa in the whole of England, she just waited for Polly to sit with her at the table. Sure enough, Polly stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray on the windowsill and sat down, though Tia also noticed she started to unbutton her dress, too.

“What’s wrong?” She grabbed Polly’s hand then and looked deep into her eyes, searching. She knew very well Polly would never give up her secrets unwillingly, not even her eyes would betray her if she didn’t really want them to. But still, worth a try.

“I’m worried about him,” Polly said then, very quietly. 

Tia hummed to herself and squeezed Polly’s hand even tighter. It used to take her longer, Tia realized, but immediately credited Polly’s newly found openness to her being dead-tired.

“Oh, fuck,” she sighed and slowly sipped her tea, though still refusing to let go of Polly’s hand. Polly pulled away first and went back to unbuttoning her dress. 

“So this is why I came,” Polly said casually, as if they were just discussing the weather, and not her nephew’s grand schemes or her obviously having way more elaborate plans than tea. 

“Sit for a second, would ya?” Tia said, a bit harsher than before. “Drink the damn tea first. What has the boy done now, eh?”

Polly let her hands fall to her sides and she shook her head, but Tia had a feeling this had nothing to do with what she had just said. This was Polly in her head again; her mind never stopping for one second, constantly moving.

Tia sighed and tried to grab Polly’s hand again, but this time Polly moved it away and grabbed the cup, taking fast swigs of the tea. 

“Jesus, slow down. There’s more.” Tia shook her head and decided to leave the subject for a while; this is what Polly was like, after all. Nothing new there, same old song and dance since the moment they met. 

Many people thought that it was the business that had turned Polly’s mind into the sharp, well-oiled machine that left very little space for her to feel love, with the grand exception of her family. Tia knew this wasn’t true at all and that Polly’s resilience started way before the war. It was them drafting her boys, though, that had finally nearly broken her heart for good. 

They had found each other then — both women drowning sorrows in gin in a dingy pub that would actually serve them. And Polly’s boys did come back in the end, thank God. She was luckier. Tia would remind her often about her luck after that, just in case Polly managed to forget it. Tia’s brother wasn’t so lucky — wasn’t drafted so at least she got to say goodbye, however, at the end there wasn’t much to say goodbye to. It was the influenza that took him, and it felt just as pointless a loss like the Somme probably would.

“Well,” Polly said but shook her head and stopped herself. She drank a bit more and Tia got up with a huff, to refill both cups. She left the teapot there on the table and Polly smiled when she spotted it, now a bit more present. It was her gift to Tia, for her birthday last year. Polly had painted the colorful patterns herself. 

Tia reached for her hand again and this time Polly let her. It wasn’t very easy these days; nursing the romantic in Polly back to health. Fortunately, Tia had the invaluable experience and could easily see the signs for the other woman’s mind taking a turn for the worse. 

“Alright, so we’ve already established it’s Tommy,” Tia said. “What has he done now?”

“It’s not that,” Polly shook her head and fixed her gaze at the wall behind Tia’s shoulder. “It’s what he’s going to do.”

“Ah, fuck.” Tia put her cup down. “You’ve been reading the cards again, luv? Hm?”

Romantic as she was, Tia never believed in Polly’s cards. She believed in the other woman’s power, the one that came from within, the one that managed to still keep the Shelbys afloat; Tia’s seen plenty of it. The cards and the stars, however, well, they were a tad too much even for her.

“Stop that shit with the tone, Tia,” Polly barked then, “if you don’t wanna listen, we might just as well fuck and then just go to sleep.”

Tia sighed and shook her head. No, she didn’t want that, at least not like this. Polly needed someone to open up to and she desperately wanted to be that person for her.

“Fine.” She rubbed her face with her hands. “What did the cards say?” she asked, this time softer.

“Fucking nothing, this is my cognition talking,” Polly sighed and looked around the flat. “Don’t you have something stronger?”

Tia pointed towards the kitchen cupboards. “Second drawer, there’s a bit of gin left.”

Polly got up swiftly and found the bottle on her first try. She quickly downed the rest of hers and Tia’s tea and poured them both a drink. Tia’s gut told her it was both too early and too late for this shit but they clinked their cups and drank, and then once more for good luck. This seemed to have given Polly the clarity she was looking for, at least Tia saw something relax in her lover’s face.

“He fell for real this time,” Polly said and nodded to herself. This time, she was the one who seeked Tia’s hand herself. “And the woman’s destructive. She’s manipulative and fucking destructive, and she’s going to ruin this family as soon as he lets her back in. And he will let her.”

Tia pressed her lips together, not really knowing what to say to that. Regarding Tommy, there wasn’t really much to say most days. Polly had told her about Greta once, but as far as Tia knew, up until this point there was nobody else significant enough in Tommy’s life to speak of. 

“And what is her name?” she asked, choosing her tone very carefully.

“Grace,” Polly spat out and poured them another drink. “And the boy’s a bloody idiot. So bloody intelligent and such a fucking idiot! Men and their cocks!”

Tia giggled a bit at that but then quickly composed herself and downed her gin together with Polly. She wondered then if, perhaps, intelligent women conversing about the matters of idiot men with their cocks, and the men in turn never taking the advice, was not the real life-long burden here — alongside childbearing, of course.

“Boy has a type,” Tia shrugged and leaned back in her chair. 

“What?” Polly lit a cigarette and took a long drag as if it was her lifeline. “She looks nothing like Greta. Couldn’t have been more different.”

“I mean the G-name.”

“Ah, well…” Polly wondered about something then, something that personally to Tia looked like talks about the cards and stars, so she didn’t press the matter further.

“But you said she’s out of the picture? So where is she?”

“My people told me she took a train.” Polly shrugged. “That’s the last time anyone saw her. Doesn’t matter, she has a pull on the boy now. They will speak again and she will make him listen fucking obediently.”

“Sounds—”

“She’s beautiful and comes from a military family,” Polly interrupted, evidently needing to let it all out. “And Tommy wants things that are pretty, things that belonged to someone else before him.”

This much was true, Tia admitted with a nod. Polly was never wrong about these things, and not about people, either. After all, Polly saw right through Tia the very first time they met. There was no questioning Polly Gray’s powers there.

“You cannot protect him from her,” Tia finally said and took the gin away. “But… you can protect him from himself. You’ve done so before, and exceptionally well, if I may add.”

Polly scoffed at that and put out the cigarette in the cup. Tia pursed her lips at that, but then noticed the other woman giving her the sort of cheeky smirk that could mean only one thing. 

“Come,” Tia outstretched her hand and finally led Polly to the bed. “Let’s focus that brilliant mind of yours on something else, shall we? And you can go back to building your Roman Empire tomorrow.”

“Ah, I don’t want any Roman bloody Empire.”

“No?”

“No,” Polly shook her head and let the other woman help her with the corset. “That one fell, remember?”

Tia giggled and took off her bathrobe, then the nightgown. Polly put her hands on Tia’s waist then and kissed her, deeply, ferociously even. Tia’s hands worked quickly at that and finally she undressed Polly completely, then pushed her towards the bed. 

“Come now,” Tia pushed Polly on her back and pinned her down to the mattress, lacing their fingers together. Polly looked at her with an expectant smile and eyes sparkling like stars. These stars here, Tia decided, these she couldn’t get enough of. 

She kissed Polly again and reached down with one hand, eliciting a soft gasp from the other woman. Kissing Polly felt like gin, granted, and lots of it, but having her like this in her bed, now that, Tia supposed, was the kind of magic no cards or crystal balls would ever compare to.


End file.
